Prevalence of congenitally missing teeth among a population of disabled school children in Kuwait

Aim This was to determine the prevalence of congenitally missing teeth in the permanent dentition among a population of disabled schoolchildren in Kuwait. Methods The study involved 702 subjects (383 males and 319 females) with sensory, physical or developmental disabilities attending the special needs schools and ranging in age from 8-29 years (mean = 13.3 years). Diagnosis and recordings were carried out according to the WHO criteria. Statistics Chi-square tests were used to test the differences in the frequencies between groups. Multivariate analysis was used to test the associations of various socio-demographic and other factors for the occurrence of the congenitally missing teeth. Results The overall prevalence of congenitally missing teeth was 11.8%. The most frequent condition was the absence of one tooth (6.3%), followed by the absence of two teeth (3.1%), three teeth (0.6%) and four teeth (1.3%). The most severe cases had congenital absence of 5 or 6 teeth (0.6%). The maxillary lateral incisor was found to be the most frequently missing tooth. Our results confirm the high prevalence of congenitally missing teeth in a Down’s syndrome group (29%), which had a higher risk for occurrence (OR = 4.1; 95% CI = 1.5-11.1). Conclusion Congenitally missing teeth were more common among these disabled subjects than in the earlier studies concerning normal Arabic children.